


Forward, Go On

by RedTailedHawks



Series: A Wayward Son [1]
Category: Supernatural, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 魔道祖师 | Módào Zǔshī (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Jin GuangYao (mentioned) - Freeform, Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī (mentioned) - Freeform, M/M, Nie Huaisang (mentioned) - Freeform, Niè Míngjué (mentioned)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:08:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27717251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedTailedHawks/pseuds/RedTailedHawks
Summary: “Nah, Meng Yao said something about Ragnarok or whatever,” Wei WuXian said with a shrug. It could have been a handful of things from vampires, to ghosts, to other shapeshifters. Wei WuXian simply doesn’t listen when Meng Yao talks. Nothing against him, Wei Wuxian doesn’t really listen when the majority of people start talking at him.“And you believed him?”“Nope.”
Relationships: Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín & Jiāng Yànlí & Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Jiāng Yànlí & Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn & MianMian
Series: A Wayward Son [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2027288
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	Forward, Go On

**Author's Note:**

> hello supernatural kinnies and wei wuxian stans, I am very tired also I wrote this instead all the other stuff I have on the backburner. Anyway I'm gonna go eat keylime pie and rewatch the first season of supernatural to remember way back when we were all happy and hopeful. 
> 
> I'm not sorry.

When Wei WuXian first shifted at seven years of age, Auntie Yu took it upon herself to ensure he would never become like the monsters they hunted. She was stricter with him than his siblings. Yelled at him more often for smaller offenses, punished him more often if ever there was a call from the school. There was always a call from the school. 

He was ten when she first placed a stake in his hand and shoved him into a known coven lair. When she told him he would either die or survive. That he would not receive help from her. He was a monster like them either way. No matter who died— him or the vampire— the world would be rid of yet another monster.

He was seventeen the first time he refused to follow her orders and kill a monster. The silver bullets she used on the other shifter are then turned on him. 

“He didn’t do anything,” Wei WuXian said. His hands curled into trembling fists. 

“It existed,” she said, “and so do you. I’ve let you live because I thought you’d be of use.” 

“I’m not a monster.” Wei WuXian argued, his voice breaking. Still as he said it he stepped back once, then twice.

“Aren’t you?” she asked. She asked and she was serious, her voice tainting with curiosity. He stepped back again. Wei WuXian shifted for the first time since he was seven. His sister’s thoughts are a soothing welcome. If he’d known how warmly she looked at him he would have done so much sooner. Maybe even all the time. 

If he’d known his sister hunted so methodically— separately from him, always separate from him. Both of them, always an arms length too far away. Auntie Yu liked it that way— he would have never done so at all. 

At seventeen he twisted on the sixth step back and ran, as fast as he could away from Auntie Yu and the bullets that chased after him and he stole the car. 

(He kept it and thought himself foolish for keeping something so easily trackable, not that anyone but Yu ZiYuan insisted on reporting it stolen in the first place.)

Now at twenty-four he sat in the only available table seat in the Roadhouse, Luo QingYang across from him wiping down the counter and glaring down any of the hunters present. Daring them to try shit with him for being there or her for letting him. He was currently still in Meng Yao’s shape from the last job. He figured if he was going to do something embarrassing it may as well be embarrassing for someone who’d flung a silver coated knife at him in the middle of a brawl with a coven of vampires very keen on decimating a small town. Sure he apologized half heartedly afterward when Wei WuXian  _ saved his life _ . 

“Are you sure you’re not injured?” Luo QingYang asked him for the tenth time in the last half hour. 

“I’m perfectly fine,” Wei WuXian said. He winced at the incoming paranoia from Meng Yao in the room above them. He  _ had _ been injured, ergo the life saving from earlier, and he was being a right bitch about it too. “You can stop asking.”

“You shifted three separate times the last time you pretended you weren’t injured, passed out, and left me the mess to clean up. I have half a mind of putting up your picture on the banishment wall Wei WuXian,” Lou QingYang said sharply. The circle motion with which she wiped the counter became jerky and more erratic the longer she thought about it. 

“That wasn’t my fault, I didn’t realize the knife was made with silver.”

“You upset Lan WangJi.”

“My existence upsets Lan WangJi.” Wei WuXian waved off. 

“Jiang YanLi came looking for you while you were in Pennsylvania, with  _ Meng Yao _ .” 

“Hey,” Wei WuXian said with a pout. He took a long drink from the sippy cup of apple juice Luo QingYang handed him with a snicker. He set it down too hard, causing the rickety bar to shake a little and the other hunters (the very ones pretending not to listen in) to glare at him. “I was supposed to meet the Nie brothers. I was short changed.”

“I thought they were dealing with ghouls in California?” Luo QingYang said. 

“Nah, Meng Yao said something about Ragnarok or whatever,” Wei WuXian said with a shrug. It could have been a handful of things from vampires, to ghosts, to other shapeshifters. Wei WuXian simply doesn’t listen when Meng Yao talks. Nothing against him, Wei Wuxian doesn’t really listen when the majority of people start talking at him.

“And you believed him?”

“Nope,” Wei WuXian popped his p and grinned up sheepishly at Luo QingYang. She was leaning against the counter now, ignoring the hunter behind them waving at her for a refill. Jin ZiXuan jumped to the other side of the bar to shut the guy up before he started a bar fight about it. “HuaiSang texted me and I quote ‘whatever a-Yao told you is true. Probably.’ So you know, who knows what they’re up to!”

“Probably still ghouls in California,” Luo QingYang said with a sigh. “Anyway, don’t think you distracted me. Your sister came looking and she’s still in town, so you’re going to be here tomorrow evening or you’re banned from the bar.”

“Just the bar?” Wei WuXian asked and got his answer in the form of Luo QingYang sharply straightening up and spinning away from him to deal with everyone else.

The bar officially closed for the night around three in the morning and Luo QingYang officially went to sleep when Wei WuXian slipped out the back door and towards the impala. He’s back to his preferred appearance: his hair tied back with a red scrunchy, a billowing wool sweater wrapped tightly around his body, his jeans tucked into his big clunky boots. He’s back to being tall and wiry instead of Meng Yao’s surprisingly short stature. His lithe fingers wrap around the key as he stabbed it in the ignition with practiced hurry. The impala hummed to life and the headlights force the shadows to hide behind the dumpster and the stack of crates Luo QingYang kept around for some reason. 

“You know dad will be happy to know you’ve been maintaining the impala.” Wei WuXian jumped out of his skin and shrieked. He could feel himself shifting and he swallowed the need to be someone else down. He just changed back and he wasn’t looking forward to cleaning loose flesh and blood off of the upholstery. Jiang YanLi chuckled a little. “Head south, a-Xian.”

He stared at her for a moment, getting his heart rate to settle and wondering what in the fresh hell was going on. 

Instead of shifting into gear Wei WuXian asked, “where’s ChengCheng?” 

“Hunting ghouls in California with the Nie brothers,” Jiang YanLi said with a pinched expression, “he didn’t think you’d want him here.” 

Which was ridiculous, not that Wei WuXian said anything. 

When Wei WuXian was nineteen Jiang Cheng tracked him down and hugged him. Wei WuXian, at the time, was three days into many bottles of hard liquor and self hatred. Wei WuXian didn’t remember what he said, or what Jiang Cheng said, he just knew that at the end of that night Wei WuXian was lying on Luo QingYang’s bathroom floor with his head in the toilet and a hand trying to staunch a surprisingly slow healing wound. He kept repeating the last words Jiang Cheng said to him and Luo QingYang still refused, five years later, to tell him what those words were. 

How was he supposed to know the knife had silver in it? 

He suspected Lan WangJi found him that night. He was there the next morning so it was possible. 

“The hot spot in Louisiana?” Wei WuXian asked instead of acknowledging her answer. She sighed and it's a sad thing. It plunged into his heart like a stake. Sears into it like a silver brand. He hated it so much he didn’t know what to do with it.

“People are disappearing, there’s a reddit thread about it.”

“So? You have any clue what it is?”

“Ghost probably. Maybe a demon.” she shrugged. He finally pulled out of his parking spot, doing as his sister told him and heading southbound. It’ll be a few days before they reach Louisiana but that was fine by him. Gave him plenty of time to figure out how to lose her.

“You know,” Wei WuXian said tensely, “you know what I am. Right? Yu ZiYuan told you.” 

There’s a pause that stretched into the night. Wei WuXian flicked the radio on, never bothering to change the station to something that wasn’t static. Above them the stars blurred and the sky lightened. 

YanLi stared out the window, thinking. Debating something Wei WuXian didn’t know about. Did she want to pretend like he wasn’t what he is? Did she see him as less? Did she hate him for it? Wei WuXian only knew he didn’t want to know. Didn’t think he could survive knowing. 

The static cut, the words  _ god _ and  _ revelations  _ emerging through the speakers only to be plunged into the static again. YanLi’s hand shot out near violently to change the station at the first word. 

Something else was there, lurking beneath her actions and he wondered what it was. 

“Yes,” YanLi answered hours later. Wei WuXian jumped at her voice. “Yes, mother told me everything. She. She wanted to—”

“I know,” Wei WuXian said. His hands tightened on the steering wheel, a dozen different people squirm beneath his skin. He forced all of them down, away from him. “I don’t kill indiscriminately. If we’re doing this— for however long we’re doing this— if they’ve done nothing wrong I won’t hurt them.” 

Out of the corner of his eye he saw YanLi smile and relax. 

“I know,” she said. His layers still, his skin no longer wishing to morph into someone else. His sister was in the impala, his brother was in california, his uncle was safe in their hometown and Yu ZiYuan was— “She’s dead.”

His foot jerked off the gas and on to the break. The wheel twisted with his body as he turned with wide eyes to look at his sister. He counted himself lucky the road was empty. 

“What?” He breathed out. 

“Two months ago it was... It was a hunt gone wrong. Vampires. It— You know, they tracked her back to the house. Dad is... He’s also....” There’s tears in her eyes and when she turned to look at him there lay a thick layer of grief and guilt. It marred her pretty features in a way Wei WuXian thought himself lucky he would never have to see. “I tried— We both— We— I’m sorry. We held the funeral and you weren’t there. We tried to find you.”

“Don’t. Don’t apologize. I didn’t want to be found. It’s not your fault.” Wei WuXian said. 

“I’m still sorry,” she said, “what mother did was. It wasn’t right, okay? Me and a-Cheng spoke about it and we both agreed it wasn’t right. We don’t blame you for leaving or wanting to stay gone but. But we miss you. We’ve missed you for seven years and... We want to reconnect.” 

“I— I’m also sorry, I should have said something to you. I should have said goodbye or something and I didn’t. And then when a-Cheng found me I was fucked up and I said some fucked up shit and I’m sorry. I. I should probably say that to him, huh?” When Wei WuXian laughed it was humorless. “I don’t even remember what we said to each other.” 

The silence that came next was comfortable. As if there was nothing between them any more. 

Wei WuXian pulled out of the emergency lane and sped up. 

“So,” YanLi said cheekily, “you and Lan WangJi?”

“ _ Does everyone know about that?”  _ Wei WuXian yelped. 

“Tell me everything.”

“How do I even start?”


End file.
